organised in the city a year earlier, began decorating the new Civic Center Park, replacing the lights with coloured globes of red and green for the holidays. In a few years he extended the display to the park’s Greek Amphitheat- er and a bit later to the nearby new Denver City and County Building - City Hall that was completed in 1932. And, obviously, that symbol of the US cities, the skyscraper, also had its role to play. Many skyscrapers had elaborate lighting schemes anyhow, with the concept called Licht- architektur in German or Architecture of the Night becoming more prominent during the 1920s and 1930s, as can be seen on a photo of The Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge at night shortly after its opening in 1932. Adding a few extras for Christmas came quite naturally.
As for the general public, outdoor lighting sets became commercially available in 1925, but at first these were hot, impractical and expensive. Also, while city dwellers became a majority in the US after the First World War, Americans living in rural areas comprised well over 40 percent of the population until after the Second World War and the vast majority of them did not have electricity. Although electricity companies sponsored neighbourhood lighting competitions, the revolution that brought us out- door Christmas decorations as we now know them really took off only after the Second World War.
PROUDLY ABOUT HISTORY OF CITY LIGHTING
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